i'm chris wallace. the president tries to change the subject back to the economy. >> an endless parade of distractions and political posturing and phony scandals can't get in the way of what we need to do. >> that's assuming there is any sizzle left after you've reheated this so many times. >> we'll talk with jack lew about the president's plan to help the middle class. and we'll discuss the budget battles ahead with republican senator mike lee. plus anthony weiner admits old habits are tough to break. >> i have said that other texts and photos were likely to come

out and today they have. there is no question that what i did was wrong. >> his wife by his side, he says he's not dropping out of the run for mayor. >> i love him. i have forgiven him. i believe in him. >> we'll ask our sunday panel about the new york city soap opera. all right now on "fox news sunday." and hello again from fox news in washington. president obama was out campaigning this week pushing his plan to boost the economy by helping the middle class. and attacking washington is too focused on quote, phony scandal. republicans say they heard it all before. on friday i sat down with treasury secretary jack lew. >> welcome back to "fox news sunday." >> good to be with you. >> president obama keeps calling for more spending to pay for infrastructure, to pay for education, to pay for clean energy.

all thing he's been pushing for almost two years and all things republicans have repeatedly rejected. the president says that the gop attempts to repeal obama care over and over again are meaningless. isn't this just as meaningless? >> yeah, chris. i think what the president was talking about this week, what he's going to be talking about in the coming weeks is what we need to do to build a better future for america's middle class, how to have a future, better opportunity for jobs. how to have security in education for your children. and health care in retirement security. how to be secure in your home. these are things the middle class americans worry about. we will keep talking about these things. it's what the american people need for us to do. >> isn't it just as meaningless because it's been rejected whether good ideas or not as the republicans continue to talk about repealing obama care? that's not going to happen either. >> i've worked in washington for quite a few decades. i don't know a lot of people on

either side of the aisle that don't believe in infrastructure. and i don't know a lot of people on either side of the aisle that don't believe in educating the next generation. >> but there's a deficit problem and we can't afford to spend more money. >> if you look at where we are today, we're not where we were in 2011. we have actually worked together. it's been a messy process, but we've worked together and reduced the deficit considerably. in the budget control act, we reduced the deficit on ae discretionary spending side. we enacted some tax legislation that raised the tax rate at the very top for the highest income. we still have some more work to do. the across the board cuts that kicked in are not good policy. we think they should be replaced by entitlement and tax reforms. but we've actually accomplished roughly the amount of deficit reduction we all set out to accomplish a few years ago. we're now arguing about the composition. we need to get on with the business of the american people who don't want us arguing about numbers. they want a better future for

the american middle class. >> let's talk about the budget. the government runs out of money on december 30th that raises another government shutdown. while the president talks about higher taxes or spending and investment as he puts it, the gop says the sequester must stay in place, $109 billion in the next fiscal year maybe reconfigured but $109 billion but billions of dollars more in spending cuts. they say cut spending. other than the republicans surrendering, what's your plan to avoid a government shutdown? >> if you look at what's going on right now in terms of our deficit, we are reducing the deficit at the fastest rate since the demobilization after world war ii. we need to talk about growth. we need to talk about how do we build that better future for america's middle class? >> are you saying we don't have a deficit problem anymore? we're $16 trillion in debt, sir. >> in the short-term if you look at the amount of deficit

reduction we're doing, we were just criticized by the imf for doing too much too soon. in the international community, i came back from meeting with finance ministers around the world, there is a consensus in the world community we need to focus on growth. that you cannot just cut your way to growth. you need to have policies in the short-term which help an economy grow. and medium and long-term reforms that put things in the right place for the long-term. >> republicans would agree that you need more growth. they'd say, though, the way to do is to lower taxes and reduce the regulatory burden. let me ask you this -- >> we've seen the results of both approaches. that approach did not work. >> let's talk about the obama approach and how much that worked in a moment. but the republicans say we want the sequester. that was part of the deal of the budget control act you talked about. the response in 2011. $109 billion in spending cuts in the next fiscal year starting to october. will the president sign a

government bill, a funding bill, a continuing resolution or budget bill that includes $109 billion in spending cuts even if it's configured? >> chris, the president has made clear he's told congress he will not sign a bill if it's at the expense of domestic spending. republicans have been writing bills that do exactly that. they don't have a way to solve their own problems without doing that. i don't think they could even pass the bills in terms of the cuts to education, to health, to all the things the american people care about. >> would you say the president would veto a bill -- a resolution to the budget shutdown crisis at the end of september that included $100 billion in new spending cuts? >> what i'm saying is congress has to write bills that meet the challenges the president set forth to invest in our future

and congress cannot steal from domestic priorities to fix problems that across the board cuts have caused in defense. i think the right solution would be to get together and have a set of alternatives to replace across the board cuts that were never meant to take place. >> will the -- >> the surprising thing is a couple years after everyone agreed this was bad policy, there are people who are now claiming credit for things that were designed to be bad policy and senseless across the board cuts. that's truly surprising. if you look at the way congress has been dealing with these across the board cuts, it reflects a substantial division even on the republican side. you see senators like john mccain and kelly ayotte. >> let's look to the debt limit. boehner said again this week no increase in the debt limit

without an equal or greater amount in spending cuts. when are we going to hit the deadline? i know you're shifting money around. and short of republican surrender, are you going to make a deal to -- how do you avoid going into default? >> chris, to be clear, we hit the debt limit in may. we've been using what are called extraordinary measures since then to pay our bills. and congress needs to do its work. it has to stop looking for what's the last possible moment. no one can predict with complete accuracy. they should get back after their take time off in august and finish their work and get it done so there's no uncertainty about america's ability to pay its bills. i got to tell you -- >> -- to avoid the default with boehner saying there's not to be spending cuts. >> 2011 was the first time in

american history you had one side saying it was an option. they have to do their work. they have to pass it. the president has made clear. we cannot negotiate about whether or not the government of the united states would default. it was a mistake in 2011 to have that debate. it hurt the economy. and i think congress has to deal with this. >> but secretary lew, the idea of a clean debt limit bill is not written in stone. when you were the deputy director of omb back in 1997 that bill clinton signed an increase in the debt limit, it happened. it was good enough for bill clinton. why can't barack obama make the same deal? >> things change. all the previous debt debates, there were conversations. 2011 was the first time there was a debate about whether or

not to default where one side said default could be managed. that is just wrong. it would be terrible for the u.s. economy and world economy. it's irresponsible. and i think congress learned that lesson in 2011. >> you talked about the economy and you talked about the president. i want to put a couple of statistics up here. first of all, let's look at growth. growth in the fourth quarter of last year was .4%. it was 1.8% in the first quarter of 2013. there's a lot of people believe it's going to be less than that in the second quarter of 2013. also the president talked about inequality. i want to put up statistics about the middle class and how it's done by mr. obama. median real household income is down 5%. that's $2,718 a year on average since the recession ended in june of 2009. so in the recovery, median real household income has gone down. the percentage of americans in

the workforce have dropped to 63.5% since the recession ended. point of all this, lot of numbers. the middle class has fallen behind for all of this talk about equality, the middle class that is fallen behind during president obama. >> you just made a point why everything he said is important. we need to focus in a bipartisan way to focus on helping the american middle class. the core of our economy is strong, it's resilient, and we've been growing. we've been growing for 40 months. we've seen gdp growth, economic growth for four years. it's not fast enough. we want to do everything we can to speed the pace of economic growth and job creation. that means we have to address the issues that the president laid out this week. we need to do the things to help build the foundation for better jobs. >> let me ask you one question, if you're so interested in creating more jobs, why not

approve the keystone pipe line? >> it's being reviewed. it was in a process that was slowed down -- >> several years it's been reviewed. three, four years. >> there were some political games that were played that took it off the trail past its completion. when republicans put it out there that was put on a timetable where it could resolved, it caused a delay. we're getting to the end of the review and we'll have to see where that is. i think playing political games with something like this is a mistake. >> i want to ask you about one other part of president obama's speech. take a look. >> with this endless parade of distractions and political posturing and phony scandals, washington's taken its eye off the ball. and i'm here to say this needs to stop. >> question. does the president think that the irs targeting of conservative groups is a phony scandal? >> the president and i have made

clear that the mistakes were made in very bad judgment managing the program were unacceptable and had to be fixed. >> so that was not a phony scandal. >> he appointed someone to has cleared out all the people who had in part in that. he put in place methods to make sure it doesn't happen again. i think we have to look at the facts. there have been a lot of investigations. there have been a lot of hearings, the justice department. there is no evidence of any political decision maker who was involved in any of those decisions. and i think the attempt to try to keep finding that evidence is creating the kind of sense of a phony scandal that was being referred to there. there was a problem. the problem has been addressed. and there was no political involvement that there's any evidence of. >> let's talk about that. on may 15th, the president directed you to investigate the irs scandal. again, take a look.

>> secretary lew to follow up and see who was responsible and to make sure that we understand all the facts. >> so if this is supposedly behind us, it's been more than two months since he directed you to lead the investigation, explain to me how it was that conservative groups were targeted by the irs. >> first of all, chris, what we found out is that we went through to find the facts and found there was equal opportunity bad judgment. >> equal numbers or not grossly disproportionate. >> the bad judgment was equal opportunity. zb but not the number of groups. >> it was -- >> over a hundred as compared to maybe a dozen. >> you have to look at how many cases of each there were. >> and who was responsible for it, sir? >> there were a number of supervisors, all career who exercised bad judgment who were we leaved of their responsibilities. i think that what happened there is unjustifiable.

it is not acceptable to have the kinds of screenings from left or right liberal or conservative where you're targeted in any way for your views. there's no political official who condoned it or authorized it. >> an irs official told congress this week that he was ordered to send applications from two tea party groups for tax exempt status to send them to the chief counsels office. as a political appointee, he reports to you, to your office. have you asked william wilkins the irs chief counsel appointed by president obama what involvement he or his office had in this? >> to be clear, there are 1600 lawyers in the chief counsel's office. and there was no suggestion that this went to the one political person in that office. there's no evidence of it. there has been no evidence of it. >> wait a minute. have you asked him? >> chris, i'm leaving the investigation to the proper

people who do investigations. i don't think it's appropriate for me to do the investigation. there are a lot of -- >> the treasury department asked william wilkins what he knew about this? >> chris, there is no evidence that this went to any political official. >> there hasn't been an investigation. the justice department investigation isn't complete. the inspector general never conducted an investigation. he conducted an audit. so where's the investigation? >> an awful lot of time has gone into asking a lot of questions of a lot of people. i'm not saying it's done and we will cooperate with all of the ongoing investigations. we have and will. i'm challenging your assertion that something has been shown when no evidence has shown it. >> i was wondering why the questions haven't been asked. >> you would have to look at it. >> on a different note, when you were nominated as treasury secretary and let's put this on

the screen. that's your signature, the upper one. it got a lot of kidding from the president in fact who said it looks like a hostess cup cake. and the one on the bottom will be what will appear. and it looks different. so the questions i have are one, why'd you change your signature? and two, how did you change your signature? >> i've been working on my handwriting for many decades and have more work to do. >> did you decide that isn't going to do for the currency of the united states? i've got to have a different signature? >> chris, i will confess to having a challenge with penmanship. i try my best. >> we appreciate your time coming in. please come back. >> good to be with you. up next, we'll hear what a leading republican has to say about the so-called phony

scandals. >> this is our last chance. this is the last stop on the obama care express before the law fully kicks in. >> senator mike lee joins us next. ♪

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and help a foster child start the school year right. not everyone can be a foster parent, but anyone can help a foster child. president obama ratcheted up the debate over the economy and the coming budget battles this week. secretary lew just made his case. now we want to hear from a key republican and a favorite of the

tea party senator mike lee of utah. welcome back to "fox news sunday." >> thank you. >> i want to get your reaction to several things secretary lew said. first on the targeting of conservative groups he said quote, the problem has been addressed and there is no evidence of any involvement by political appointees. your reaction? >> i think you need to ask some of the people who were affected by this how they feel about this. whether or not this is, in fact, behind us. i don't think this has been investigated to the extent that we know everything there is to know. nor do i think we should give up. we know how this works. we know when you put this much discretion and power on the hands of a few, eventually it may well be abused for partisan political purposes. that happened here and we've got to get to the bottom of it. >> he was somewhat evasive on the question of whether or not anybody in the irs has directly spoken to the chief counsel of the irs. is that a hole in the on whether

this problem has been addressed. >> yes. he supplied some of the answer to your question. which is the fact he was being that evasive means he doesn't know or he's got something to hide. either way we've got to get to the bottom of that. who knew what and when they knew it. because this is a big problem. there's a big deficit of trust with this administration. particularly when it comes to the irs. an agency that was given too much power. >> on the economy, secretary lew said we're doing a good job of bringing down the deficit. some saying they you're going to too hard. he says the best way to build the middle class is through more government spending, investments they call it, on things like infrastructure and education and manufacturing. i beg to differ.

from day one. and the fact is it habit worked. the fact is if you want to help the middle class, the best thing you can do is limit the federal government's spending. obama care is one of many examples of this and why we need to move away from these laws. >> we're going to get to obama care in a second. but what's wrong with government spending on things like infrastructure. things like education of workers when they have to shift from one career to another. wouldn't that help in this. >> i'm not saying there's no role for government in any of these areas. but we have to ask the question which government. is that a proper federal role in every instance or should it be a prerogative of state government to look out for things like education? we also have to look at how far we've already gone in with the government. this president seems to be using a one-way ratchet. expanding the role of the government even though we're $17 trillion in debt and we're

increasing that debt by about a trillion dollars a year. >> one of the things i talked to secretary lew about was the question of the sequester. as the government begins to run out of money at the end of september, he says the congress should find a way out of the sequester which would be another $100 billion in spending cuts over fiscal 2014 beginning next october. but he said that republicans and he could have mentioned you because i know this is something you feel about, are trying to steal from domestic problems to bail out the pentagon. the non-partisan congressional budget office made another point this week. the cbo says if you were to cancel the sequester spending cuts, it would create 900,000 jobs next year and boost growth by .7%. gdp by almost a full point next year. question. isn't the sequester a drag on the economy? >> the sequester is problematic on several levels. problematic because it tries to

cut too much. disproportionately out of our armed services. what we need to do is make sensible cuts, not back away from the cuts. not take them out of the brave men and women who are protecting us. >> let's go to obama care. the government runs out of money at the end of september and you are making a push to say that you will not support -- you've got some republican senators on board -- you will not support any resolution to the budget shutdown the idea the government might be shut down, you will not support any solution that includes continued funding of obama care. don't you run the risk because you know the president's never going to go for that of a shut down? >> we always knew obama care was going to be unaffordable. we now also know that it's going to be unfair. the president has said that he's not ready to implement this law.

because he's not ready to implement it, he's going to selectively enforce it. he's going to give a big pass to big business while telling hard working individuals that they have to comply with this law or face stiff penalties under law. what i'm saying is that if the president's not ready to implement the law, if the law's not ready for primetime, congress shouldn't fund it. >> but again, regardless of the logic of your argument, the president isn't going to go for it, democrats in the senate aren't going to go for it. they're not going to accept that. are you prepared to shut down the government over this issue? >> look, chris. we all know that the government is going to get funded. the only question is if it gets funded with obama care or without it? he says he's not ready to implement the law. he says the law isn't ready for primetime. if the law's not ready, we can't fund it. >> democrats are bashing you over this stance, but you're also taking heavy fire from

fellow republicans in the senate and other places. let's look. >> to me there's appropriate ways to deal with the law, but shutting down the government to get your way over an unrelated piece of legislation is the political e fif lent of a temper tantrum. >> i'm suspect about it. it gives the president a gigantic stick on which to beat it. >> five republicans who were originally signed on to your effort, no government funding unless you defund obama care have now dropped out. one is calling it, his words not mine, one of the dumbest ideas i've ever heard. >> well, chris, the fact is that this really isn't about republicans versus democrats. this is yet another instance of washington versus everyone else. and we've got to stop washington from dividing the american people. we've got to stop washington from hurting the american

people. that's what's happening here. the fact is that americans by a margin of about 2-1 believe this will make their situation worse not better. only 12% support the individual mandate. businesses don't like it. individuals hate it. union leaders say it will be bad for workers. and even the law's principal author describes it as a train wreck. the law isn't ready. we shouldn't fund it. >> republican leaders would make this point. funding the government is always going to last for a year or less. even if you got what you wanted, you wouldn't kill obama care, you would simply delay it for a year. they also say if we were to follow your logic and end up with a government shutdown or if you tied it to an increase on the debt limit that it's precisely the kind of action that is going to make it hard for republicans to keep control of the house and have any chance of winning. >> i understand there are some

from both political party who is aren't happy with me over this. in this instance, i'm going to take that as a compliment. the facts is we can delay the funding. if we can delay it, we can stop its consequences at least for now. we have to do that. there were many of us elected specifically with this mandate in mind. that we've got to stop this law. we have a stronger reason to do that now. because the president said he's not going to enforce it. he's not ready. so he's going to selectively implement the law subjecting them to these horrendous fines while exempting big business. that's not fair, it's not right. and we shouldn't fund it. >> thanks for coming in today. we will be following the battle of the budget. thank you, sir. >> thank you. now a live look at rio de janeiro where pope francis a holding mass on the beach.

estimates as many as 3 million will turn out. brazil is home to the world's largest catholic population. the pope is making his first overseas trip. up next, more violence in the streets of egypt. dozens killed and hundreds wounded. as mass protests are held. we'll have a live report and then our sunday panel. next. excuse me, sir i'm gonna have to ask you to power down your little word game. i think your friends will understand. oh...no, it's actually my geico app...see? ...i just uh paid my bill. did you really? from the plane? yeah, i can manage my policy, get roadside assistance, pretty much access geico 24/7. sounds a little too good to be true sir. i'll believe that when pigs fly. ok, did she seriously just say that? geico. just a click away with our free mobile app.

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the deadliest since morsi was ousted a month ago. john kerry calling on the ally to take a step back from the brink. connor has the latest from the newsroom. >> reporter: the chances for a political solution to this ongoing violence in egypt appear to be fading as the protests continue to take to the streets. an effort to clear the supporters from the streets, the egyptian military opened fire on peaceful demonstrations yesterday killing at least 70 people, wounding hundreds more. egypt's top military commanders to quote, give him a mandate to tackle terrorism. his statement is widely understood to crackdown on the muslim brotherhood. this is the second time the egyptian army has used deadly

force to clear out pro-morsi supporters. transitional government with several members of the coalition really complaining and voicing concerns about the violence. the supporters of this military coup that took place about a month or so ago to remove president morsi have justified it on the grounds that it would be used to remove and to add stability to the country. it appears to be doing just the opposite. >> conor powell reporting. time to bring in our sunday panel group. amy walter from the cook political report. nina easton of fortune magazine. and fox news political analyst ron williams. so a violent crackdown on the muslim brotherhood across egypt. authorities saying they are launching an investigation of ousted president morsi on charges of espionage or allegations of espionage and murder. how do you assess the situation and what is one of our closest

allies? >> i think that the administration's position of ambiguity about whether or not this was the coup or a question whether to aid the egyptian military is probably the right course. i don't think anybody knows what's going to happen over there, but i think a couple things. one, i think the morsi government was unpopular and he remains unpopular. the military when it called for protests supporting it got a pretty big response to that. i think the people broadly speaking are backing the military. the problem now is with this outbreak of violence with 70 or more people dead is that you can open wounds that you can't heal. and the hopes of reigniting this country are diminished by the day. >> amy, let's pick up on this question. modest disapproval they've sending fighters to e.g. jipt. but going ahead with a military

exercises with the egyptian military, what's the message frankly what's the obama administration's policy towards egypt? >> i don't think we have much of a choice when it comes to foreign aid. you can make some little changes like with the f-16. at the end of the day, the first could be cutting off aid could disstabilize the region more than already. which is true. and iss reel is already letting the american government know they would not be excited about the fact of moving away from aid to egypt. and finally costs us money. we've made these contracts, the american government has made contracts with these defense contractors to supply these weapons and other military things. equipment. and bottom line is when you cut that off, you're still -- the american government is still

paying the bills for that. it's not saving us money to cut off that aid. >> president obama faces a dilemma here because on the one hand he didn't like the authoritarian government that morsi and the muslim brotherhood had set up, on the other hand morsi was the democratically elected president of the country. so the authority now seems to be the military, a small group of generals, and the mob in the street. what's the president do here? >> well, the problem is tit for tat depression and violence do not a democracy make. this is not a building block for democracy despite the public support that the army has. you have to think back to 1992 when the algerian army canceled elections to prevent islamists from taking over and it plunged that country into a civil war. ten years. and i think the secretary of state john kerry was right when he said we need to step back from the brink. the muslim brotherhood and morsi

was elected with 52% of the vote. all the horrendous things it did over the past year, it's not going away. and to be shooting protesters in the head, the investigation of morsi, it divides the country. and i think on the question of foreign aid, it is time at least to use the foreign aid for some leverage. so say we've got to move and you've got to move towards elections. >> one, to nina's point, secretary kerry was making precisely that point that the military needs to reach out to the muslim brotherhood and find -- that's hard when you're killing dozens of protesters. some basis for reconciliation. it's hard to talk about reconciliation when it's the islamics who are trying to

expand their camp. and secondly that their basic dman is morsi be reinstated. that's what they're calling for. a reinstatement of a government that was failing, a government that had ruined the egyptian economy, and they're saying he was legitimately elected and he must be put back in place. i think what you're then saying is egypt then would be an islamist state. they're just going to go with morsi and the muslim brotherhood. i think the people have ejected that. the military could not be doing what it's doing unless the people said clearly we reject morsi and the islamists. it looks like you're on the verge of civil war here, but how can you say to the military -- how can the united states say to the military, you guys ease up. if they ease up, they're giving in to the islamists. when you deal with extremists, that's what you get. >> we have a couple minutes left. i want to talk about a

fascinating split inside the republican party. the house narrowly blocked a measure that at a lot of conservatives were supporting that would have limited the ability of the government to do this kind of massive phone surveillance. and new jersey governor chris christie went after rand paul on the question of setting limits on government surveillance. take a look. >> these ess a to teric debates, i want them to come and sit across from the widows an orphans and have that conversation. and they won't. because that's a much tougher conversation to have. >> rand paul responded saying there's nothing esoteric about the policy. >> this is a real battle in the republican party. it is a deep disagreement. it's been going on for a long

time. now it's back. the party's going to have to have this out. whether chris christie's harsh approach to it somewhat reflected in the piece you played, is the right way to start it or get it underway. i don't know. this is real, it's out there, and it's going to go forward. >> the tea party wing of the party is in the rand paul camp. if you're talking about where they stand, there was a new poll out this week. 62% of tea party republicans said they disapprove of the nsa program. but when you're talking about that battle within the party right now, rand paul is on that side. >> we have to take a break here, but when we come back politicians on both coasts admit to behaving badly with women. we take on the anthony weiner and bob filner scandals. next.

i have said that other texts and photos were likely to come out. today they have. >> i will be entering a behavior counseling clinic to begin the process of addressing my dmaifr. >> the conduct of some of these people here is reprehensible. so disrespectful of women. and what's really stunning about it is they don't even realize. >> nancy pelosi denouncing anthony weiner and san diego mayor bob filner. both former democratic house colleagues now caught up in sex scandals. we're back now with the panel. weiner admits he continued having sexually explicit contact over the internet with at least

three women a year after he had resigned and said he was going to get help. filner says he's getting two weeks of therapy after allegations he groped several women and more coming out of the closet. but neither are leaving politics. what do you make of this? >> i think they're both political walking dead. refusing to move. filner says he's going to take two weeks of therapy. and weiner isn't apparently taking therapy. he may need it even more. this is a sick puppy and he has problems. watching this play out in public is painful and embarrassing. if the people of new york were to accept him as their mayor, it would be quite something. >> because interestingly enough before this latest revelation, anthony weiner was leading in some of the polls.

until these latest revelations that you can see there he is now fallen behind the front runner christine quinn. now in san diego there's an effort to recall filner as the mayor. what do you see happening to both of these guys? >> well, i think that brit is correct. anthony weiner is not going to be elected mayor. you'll continue to see the polls drop. he lost his campaign manager this morning. and diane feinstein said bob filner should resign. i don't think they have much time there. i want to pull back for a second which is part of what gets them going is the fact that they are being covered constantly. the microphones and the camera are their oxygen. as we pay more attention to them, they l this. when we take the cameras away, they cease to exist. the more we focus sort of the freak show element of politics, unfortunately what it's doing is only encouraging it to run.

>> filner was grabbing women and -- >> no, no. weiner is one of those. >> you think weiner was sending those in the fact he would get publicity? >> i think he likes getting the attention that he's getting in this run. this is part of what makes him exist is getting the tv cameras, the microphones. >> i suspect he would have preferred to do without that? >> i don't know. >> nina, let's get back -- we can let them continue in that. let's get to the main subject today which was the economy and the president's effort to reframe the debate in advance of the budget battles which we're going to see coming up in september and october and november. first over government funding and the possible shutdown of the government. then over raising the debt limit and a possible default. what do you think of the basic argument that the president was making all week and the treasury secretary lew made again this

morning? >> whenever this president talks about the economy, he talks some about growth but mostly about inequality. what you have to look at is how lower class middle income people recovery.ss middle income people as we pointed out earlier in the show, median household income has dropped by 5%. you have disability what does it do when people are on disability, they're in poverty. it is a low level income. it is not an escalator. >> the answer iso more governmet spending, infrastructure, job retraining. >> we tried that. it was called the stimulus bill. it was called the stimulus bill. crawling along. the rich are doing fine, the stock market is exploding thanks to the fed, housing prices are n going up, the rich are doing fine. what's missing in this ha conversation is the fact that this president's policies have not helped the middle class, and particularly the lower middle class. >> this is a b basic philosophil

conversation that divided washington and the parties for years now. what's the best way to boost thc economy, what's the best way to help the middle class. more government involvement, or more government involvement, or way. >> go to the economist, ben bernanke is now leaving, there's a large argument at the white house boys who his successor should be, he is leaving, he c said as charts demonstrated earlier in the show, if congresr and government would simply get back in the game, they're a major engine of economic activity and they're right now causing some of the slow in terms of recovery. >> what about the stimulus? we spent over $800 million. >> we went through a terrible recession in this country, there have been attempts atn spendin and we've seen republicans re respond it is a waste of money and that austerity is the order of the day. president obama is saying if a you'reyi truly caring about resuscitating the fortunes of the middle class in this s

country, you have to spend money. >> juan, after a very severe recession in the early '80s, there was faith for the private sector to take over and growth, that's not been the case. e sbupt. i want to get to one last subject, that was the other part of the president's message, the phony scandals. we heard it from the president and heard it a little more subtly from jack lew. do you think he can make benghazi, snooping and spying on reporters go away? >> it may help with the base to belittle these cases as phony. a lot of his supporters on the left and on the journalistic left believe that about them, but i think so many people in the public are fed up about these things, i don't think it o makes them go away at all. t makes them go away at all. t on what is ultimately discoverek about each and all of them. >> let me ask about that. clearly it was a steady drum

beat, talking point was out d there, heard it from jay carneyr heard it from the president s repeatedly, fromc jack lew, phoy scandals. smart political move?s what's the thinking. >> it is a smart political move, it takes the focus off the f actual event and focuses on thea question is this a scandal or d not, not on what happened. >> and tactics of republicans. >> and tactics of the republicans, exactly.th look, republicans where their approval ratings are now, hard to believe they could go lower, but they have continued to drop. >> nina? >> i agree. i think it does stick. it is one of those things that sticks for the president. the question that's going to be interesting is whether the i scandals have any legs in the ny mid term elections. >> i think it does. balloons are real, but if you m fill them with hot air and pop them, they're going to explode. >> lots to think about. thank you, panel, see you next e week. remember our discussion continues and we'll continue d that discussionis every sunday

panels plus. find it on our website, foxnewssunday.com. and follow us on twitter.ng and still going strong after 40 years in the music business. ♪ music business. ♪ ♪ [ villain ] well mr. baldwin... it appears our journey has come to a delightful end. then i better use the capital one purchase eraser to redeem my venture miles for this trip.

purchase eraser? it's the easy way to erase any recent travel expense. i just pick a charge, like my flight with a few taps, it's taken care of. impressive baldwin. does it work for hotels? absolutely thank goodness. mrs. villain and i are planning our... you scare me. and i like it. let's go what's in your wallet? i guess. did you download that book i sent? yah, nice rainbow highlighter. you've got finch for math right? uh-uh. english? her. splanker, pretend we're not related. oh trust me, you don't want any of that. you got my map? yeah. where you can sit can define your enti year. and what's the most important thing to remember? no face to face contact until we're off of school property. you got this. sharing what you've learned. that's powerful. verizon. get the samsung galaxy stratosphere ii for free.

♪ >> chris: it's been part she's been part of the sound track of our lives more than 40 years. as we reported last november, her songs of love and loss reflect her own life. here is our power player of the week. >> i'm still here. i'm still here, you know. >> at age 74, roberta flack is

indeed still here. still captivating audiences with her magical voice and music. ♪ >> it started so easily. back in 1973, she won grammys for record and song of the year for first time ever i saw your face. what was that like to just hit it big? >> scary, overwhelming, frightening, unbelievable. there's one. is this me? >> then a year later she won the grammys again for killing me softly. ♪ >> two years in a row, you have song of the year and record of the year. did you just think this is going to go on forever? >> yes, you always do. but why not? >> but flack suddenly stopped recording and gave few concerts. >> three years you didn't release an album. you didn't -- >> why didn't i release an album, i don't know. i think i didn't have anything to say. >> she also had serious drug

problems. but as flack says, she's here, now 40 years after her big break, she released an album of beatles songs, inspired by living next door to john lennon when he was writing "imagine." >> the wall from my computer room is also the back wall of his music room, and i'm hearing -- >> imagine there's no heaven. >> it is hard to imagine roberta flack's journey. she grew up in a largely segregated northern virginia, but started piano lessons at age nine. six years later had a music scholarship to howard university. >> what are you doing in college at the age of 15? >> i don't know. i could have gotten married at 14, except they said i was too short. >> flack was classically trained. her real ambition was to be a concert pianist, which may be why seven years ago she started

the roberta flack school of music in a charter school in the bronx. >> you can become the next jay z, beyonce, barbara streisand, but there has to be some basic fundamentals. >> speaking of fundamentals, flack still takes voice lessons. >> you keep polishing the tool. you keep warming it up, keep shining it, making it brighter. i want to sing until i can't sing any more, play until i can't play any more. >> what's the excitement when you get on stage? >> the songs. >> roberta flack hopes to open more music schools here in washington and in barbados. and she says she intends to keep on singing. and that's it for today. have a great week, and see you

next fox news sunday. this is the fox report. tonight, did we just get a hint from the obama administration? the latest talking point that the president says the scandals in washington and the headlines are phony. he hasn't said which is phony, but tonight maybe we're getting a hint. and he left their continent a cardinal, returns as the first latin american pontiff. on his last day in brazil, a rock star sendoff for the people's pope. a reported crowd of 3 million, flocking to a mass led by the leader of the world's billion plus catholics. pope francis wrapping up a historic trip with the